JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Individuals who use wheelchairs face many barriers to regular exercise. Implementing exercises in the form of video games, otherwise known as exergaming, has gained recent attention as a way to increase physical activity and combat health issues resulting from sedentary lifestyles. However, these exergaming apps have not been developed for exercises that can be performed in wheelchairs, and they tend to rely on whole body movements.

Objective:

Our objectives were to develop a mobile phone application that implements EMG-driven exergaming and test the feasibility of using this app to enable people in wheelchairs to perform exergames, used in circuit resistance training, independently and flexibly in their own home.

Methods:

We have developed a mobile phone application (WOW-Mobile) which senses upper limb muscle activity (EMG) from wireless body-worn sensors to drive 3 different video games which implement upper limb exercises that were designed for people in wheelchairs. The app was developed in Java on an Android platform with the EMG acquired by Flexdots (Dynofit, Inc.), Bluetooth-enabled sensors. EMG drove the game engines and was recorded during all exergaming sessions on our cloud server, in order to enable long-term monitoring and feedback as well as multiplayer gaming. Benchtesting of data transmission and power consumption were tested with Android Studio’s Profiler. Pilot testing was conducted on four individuals with spinal cord injury. Each had a WOW-Mobile system in their home for 8 weeks. By analyzing the session data acquired in real-time and stored on our cloud server, we measured minutes the app was used; minutes exergames were played; and integrated EMG as a measure of energy expended.

Results:

Benchtest results reveal that the app meets performance specifications to enable real-time gaming, cloud storage of data, and live cloud server transmission for multiplayer gaming. The EMG sampling rate of 64 samples/s, in combination with lossless zero-loss data communication with the cloud server within a 10m range, provided seamless control over the app exergames and allowed for offline data analysis. The WOW-mobile system was successfully pilot tested by four individuals with spinal cord injury. Each participant utilized the WOW-mobile system at home for 8 weeks. They utilized the app for an average of 146 (89-267) minutes per week with the system, actively exergaming for an average of 53% of that time (39-59%). Energy expenditure, as measured by integrated EMG (iEMG) was found to be directly proportional to time spent on the app (Pearson correlation coefficient, r = 0.57-0.86, depending on the game). Two out of the four participants did not exercise regularly before the study; these two participants increased from reportedly exercising close to 0 minutes per week to exergaming 58 and 158 minutes on average, respectively, using the WOW-Mobile fitness system.

Conclusions:

Mobile app exergames driven by EMG has promising potential for encouraging and facilitating fitness for individuals in wheelchairs.